The time has apparently come for cattle to come off the wheat. There are quite a few cattle moving right now, and with wheat heading towards the sky, a lot of cattle are being forced off the wheat weeks ahead of time. There are numerous cases of cattle that did have until the 15th of March to graze, but the cattle owners have been told to get them off now! The only reason some cattle haven’t moved is because it’s too wet to get them.
It doesn’t make much sense to get in such a hurry. The weather is better, the wheat is growing, and the cattle are just now really starting to put on some weight. At this point it doesn’t look like leaving the cattle for an extra day or week will make any difference in the wheat crop and at $12.00 or $15.00 a bushel, there is a lot of extra money to play with!
There is no guarantee that anyone will cut a crop this year. The last two or three years have been extremely tough in Oklahoma and southern Kansas with very few fields even making it to harvest. A year ago at this time, there was very little wheat even out of the ground! There appears to be a lot of fields now with the wheat just coming on, but most of these were planted very late.
Conditions are outstanding right now to make a bumper wheat crop! In a couple of weeks the country will not look the same. There has been plenty of moisture and spring time is just about here, not to mention the fact that everyone did everything that was humanly possible to get the maximum crop this year! With warmer weather and more sunshine, it sure looks like this will be one of the biggest crops ever!
Once again timing will make a big difference in things. Two to three weeks ago, it sure looked liked it might be better to graze the wheat out than pay for all the harvesting costs, but since then wheat has come up $3.00 or $4.00 and the May futures have dropped about that much! If nothing else, we sure have a lot of options that we haven’t had in several years!
The cattle market itself is great! Calves and stockers get higher every day, with yearlings holding their ground, and probably looking better after the wheat run is over! Butcher cows are very high also, with bred cows few and far between and bringing excellent money! There are only one or two more weeks of cattle coming to town, and then it looks like the wheat run might be over. If the grain market doesn’t hamper things, it is an excellent market to be selling cattle in, and maybe even better down the road!
EXCELLENT RUN OF CATTLE NEXT WEEK!
Gray Ranch 200 Angus sired strs/hfrs, home raised, 600-800 lbs
Gall Cattle Co 110 Angus cross steers, 650-750 lbs
Bar L Farms 170 Angus cross heifers, 600-800 lbs, and gtd open
Russell Lloyd 50 Fancy, Red Angus strs/hfrs, home raised, 500-700
Gary Brinkman 100 Angus sired strs/hfrs, 700-850 lbs
C & C Cattle Co 150 Angus sired strs/hfrs, gtd open, green, 550-750 lbs
